Ebook The Octopus (Epic of the Wheat), by Frank Norris
Based on the The Octopus (Epic Of The Wheat), By Frank Norris information that we offer, you could not be so baffled to be here and to be participant. Get currently the soft file of this book The Octopus (Epic Of The Wheat), By Frank Norris and save it to be all yours. You saving could lead you to stimulate the simplicity of you in reading this book The Octopus (Epic Of The Wheat), By Frank Norris Also this is types of soft file. You can really make better chance to obtain this The Octopus (Epic Of The Wheat), By Frank Norris as the recommended book to read.
The Octopus (Epic of the Wheat), by Frank Norris
Ebook The Octopus (Epic of the Wheat), by Frank Norris
Just how a suggestion can be got? By staring at the superstars? By going to the sea and also checking out the sea weaves? Or by checking out a publication The Octopus (Epic Of The Wheat), By Frank Norris Everyone will have specific particular to get the inspiration. For you who are passing away of books and consistently get the motivations from publications, it is truly excellent to be here. We will certainly reveal you hundreds collections of the book The Octopus (Epic Of The Wheat), By Frank Norris to review. If you like this The Octopus (Epic Of The Wheat), By Frank Norris, you could additionally take it as all yours.
The factor of why you could get and also get this The Octopus (Epic Of The Wheat), By Frank Norris faster is that this is guide in soft data kind. You can read guides The Octopus (Epic Of The Wheat), By Frank Norris wherever you really want even you remain in the bus, office, house, and other places. Yet, you might not should move or bring the book The Octopus (Epic Of The Wheat), By Frank Norris print any place you go. So, you won't have heavier bag to lug. This is why your selection to make far better idea of reading The Octopus (Epic Of The Wheat), By Frank Norris is truly handy from this case.
Recognizing the method the best ways to get this book The Octopus (Epic Of The Wheat), By Frank Norris is also important. You have actually been in right site to start getting this details. Obtain the The Octopus (Epic Of The Wheat), By Frank Norris web link that we supply right here and also check out the link. You can buy guide The Octopus (Epic Of The Wheat), By Frank Norris or get it as soon as feasible. You could rapidly download this The Octopus (Epic Of The Wheat), By Frank Norris after getting bargain. So, when you need guide promptly, you could straight get it. It's so very easy and so fats, right? You have to choose to in this manner.
Just attach your device computer or gadget to the net attaching. Obtain the contemporary innovation to make your downloading The Octopus (Epic Of The Wheat), By Frank Norris completed. Even you don't intend to check out, you could straight close guide soft file and open The Octopus (Epic Of The Wheat), By Frank Norris it later on. You could also conveniently get guide all over, due to the fact that The Octopus (Epic Of The Wheat), By Frank Norris it remains in your device. Or when remaining in the workplace, this The Octopus (Epic Of The Wheat), By Frank Norris is likewise recommended to review in your computer system gadget.
Based on an actual bloody dispute in 1880 between wheat farmers and the Southern Pacific Railroad, this shocking tale of lust for power, greed, and betrayal plays out during the last days of the western frontier. As the beast that encircled and strangled ranches, "The Railroad" personified evil. Through its owners and agents, it controlled the local paper, the land, the legislature, and even representatives on the state rate-fixing commission. But the farmers were not completely blameless, using such tactics as coercion and violence in an attempt to achieve their ends. Inspired by the work of French author Emile Zola, The Octopus is a novel of remarkable sweep and range, vividly and relentlessly recording social and economic problems of the late 19th century.
- Sales Rank: #2353899 in eBooks
- Published on: 2013-03-05
- Released on: 2013-03-05
- Format: Kindle eBook
Amazon.com Review
This is a turn-of-the-century epic of California wheat farmers struggling against the rapacity of the Pacific and Southwestern Railroad, which will stop at nothing to extend its domination. The company controls the local paper, the land, the legislature and, when the farmers organize to protect themselves, even manages to control their representative on the state rate-fixing commission. An unremitting tale of greed and betrayal, originally intended as one-third of Norris' never-completed "Epic of the Wheat" trilogy.
About the Author
Frank Norris was an American author who wrote primarily in the naturalist genre, focusing on the impact of corruption and turn-of-the-century capitalism on common people. Best known for his novel McTeague and for the first two parts of his unfinished The Epic of the Wheat trilogyThe Octopus: A Story of California and The Pit, Norris wrote prolifically during his lifetime. Following his education at the Acad?mie Julian in Paris, University of California, Berkeley, and at Harvard University, Norris worked as a news correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle, and covered the Spanish-American War in Cuba for McClure s Magazine. Norris died suddenly in 1902 of peritonitis, leaving The Wolf: A Story of Empire, the final part of his Wheat trilogy, incomplete.
Most helpful customer reviews
43 of 45 people found the following review helpful.
Wheat barons vs. railroad barons
By A.J.
Based on an actual incident, "The Octopus" is set in the San Joaquin Valley of central California towards the end of the 19th century -- not long before it was written. It concerns a dispute between the Pacific & Southwestern Railroad (in historical reality, the Southern Pacific) which owns the land it runs through and the tenant wheat ranchers who farm it. For one thing, the ranchers would like to own the land by buying it off the railroad, but the railroad raises the price per acre to exorbitant levels in violation of a previous contract; also, the ranchers are protesting the railroad's monopolistic policy of charging high freight rates for shipping wheat, which cuts into their profits.
The characterization of the novel is rather straightforward. The "heroes" are the ranchers, which include "Governor" Magnus Derrick, an ostensibly upstanding politician; Broderson, an ineffectual old man; Osterman, a loudmouthed joker; Annixter, an irascible and obstinate misogynist; and an engineer named Dyke who starts his own hops business after being laid off by the railroad. The author himself is presumably represented by a third-party observer named Presley, a poet who lives on the Derrick ranch and is using the scenery and the conflict as inspiration. The "villain" is, of course, the railroad, which is personified by a porcine banker named S. Behrman who acts as the railroad's agent and mouthpiece and whose frequent insensitivity and cruelty reduces him to a simplistic caricature.
The ranchers decide that the best way to keep the railroad's freight rates under control is to elect their own officials to the state Railroad Commission, which would entail bribery; after all, the railroad practically owns the Commission as it is. Despite their getting the Governor's son, Lyman Derrick, to represent them on the Commission, the ranchers' scheme proves ineffective. The railroad ultimately offers the wheat land for sale at the raised prices and sends "dummy" buyers out to dispossess the ranchers, who arm themselves to defend their homes. The result is a shockingly violent confrontation that shakes Presley's sentiments to the core.
"The Octopus" has some elements that I found distracting, puzzling, or faulty. First, there is not just one but *two* romantic subplots: Annixter's difficult courtship with a girl whose family works on his ranch (but at least we see how his marriage transforms his character positively and plausibly); and the shepherd/spiritualist Vanamee's incomprehensible nightly summonings of the ghost of his long-lost love Angele. Some of the dialogue is rendered flaccid by the use of euphemisms -- it's unbelievable that Annixter would refrain from calling Behrman anything worse than a "pip." The unctuous tone it applies to its oppressed-worker-vs.-corporate-monster theme is similar to the approach Steinbeck would use almost forty years later in "The Grapes of Wrath."
Despite its obvious flaws, however, "The Octopus" manages to be an exemplary work of American literature. The subject matter is unique and necessary for its time, and the commercial and legal aspects of the conflict are treated with maturity and confidence. It uses the perpetual production of wheat as a metaphor for the continuous cycle of the good of the earth prevailing over the evil of men. But most importantly, it achieves the highest purpose of a novel about business: It examines the integrity and resolve of men faced with financial ruin.
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful.
An epic saga about the turn-of-the-century Railroad trusts.
By A Customer
Definitely not for all tastes, but a strong work, with well-drawn characters and some very beautiful (albeit long) prose passages. Norris has a habit of driving his point into the ground (a section near the end of the novel, which juxtaposes a mother and child starving to death on the street with a wealthy, upperclass, elitist meal comes to mind), but over all a profound and powerful work. Originally intended as the first part of a proposed "Trilogy of Wheat," Norris died near the publication of the second book (see "The Pit.") Definitely recommended for those who enjoy great American literature.
29 of 32 people found the following review helpful.
Makes me want to learn more about "Old" California
By Gerry Dincher
Today when we think of California we think of what else but Los Angeles and San Francisco. Many people forget that California has a rich history based in agriculure and mining. The Octopus tells a story about California's past and the epic struggle between the Wheat farmers and the all powerful railroads. The characters are dynamic and Norris has written the story so brilliantly that you actually feel for the characters. If you read this book you also must read "The Pit" also by Norris which tells the tale of the Chicago Commodities market and one mans overpowering desire to "corner" the wheat market.
The Octopus (Epic of the Wheat), by Frank Norris PDF
The Octopus (Epic of the Wheat), by Frank Norris EPub
The Octopus (Epic of the Wheat), by Frank Norris Doc
The Octopus (Epic of the Wheat), by Frank Norris iBooks
The Octopus (Epic of the Wheat), by Frank Norris rtf
The Octopus (Epic of the Wheat), by Frank Norris Mobipocket
The Octopus (Epic of the Wheat), by Frank Norris Kindle
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar